Career In Biotechnology

Do you want to make vaccines for pandemic like coronavirus or any other rarely curable diseases? Do you want to help farmers by developing seeds that can blossom fields without affecting soil? Are you interested in biology and want to go into the technology field with this subject?

Then, a career in Biotechnology is the sole answer for all these questions. Biotechnology is a word that is a mixture of two words “BIOLOGY” and “TECHNOLOGY” and hence definition says that it involves technology in biology and makes use of biology as a tool to do advancement in technology. Biotechnology results in products and technologies to make medicines for even rarest diseases with least side effects, reduce in carbon footprint by providing cleaner and efficient energy sources, more efficient industrial manufacturing processes. Biotechnology is an emerging field and rapidly growing field with lots of career prospects.

If you want to start career in Biotechnology, then you must have done schooling with Biology, Maths, Chemistry and Physics as compulsory subjects at 10+2 level from CBSE or state boards or any international boards for B.Tech.(Bachelor in Technology) in Biotechnology whereas for B.Sc.(Bachelor in Science) in Biotechnology, all other subjects mentioned above are compulsory except Mathematics. There are many entrance exams available for getting admissions in the course of Biotechnology. National level exams such as JEE Mains,JEE Advanced, state level exams such as MH-CET,WBJEE, etc. and many private technical institutions also take their individual entrance exams for admissions such as BITSAT,AMITY-JEE,VITEEE, etc. are required to give to get admissions at colleges. For different entrance exams, eligibility is also different and can be read through the brochure of that exam. For getting admission abroad, you must refer to the college website and their eligibility for admissions. B.Sc. in Biotechnology is a 3 years course whereas B.Tech. in Biotechnology is a 4 years long course. The total fees for courses in Biotechnology basically depends on college and degree but average total fees ranges between 5 lakhs to 10 lakhs. In India, highest ranking colleges for courses in Biotechnology are various IITs,NITs,Birla Institute of Technology,Vellore Institute of Technology,SRM University,Amity University,Banaras Hindu University,etc.

And there are many institutions other than these higher-ranking colleges that provide various courses in Biotechnology at graduation level. As graduates in Biotechnology (B.Sc./B.Tech.),different degrees implies different companies as well as different fields for jobs. As a graduate in Biotechnology, you can work in companies which are focussed on human healthcare, industrial chemicals, biofuels, horticulture, etc. As a fresher, the average annual salary is 2 lakhs to 6 lakhs depending on the position and company that recruits you. 

Now, let’s come to post graduation (M.Tech./M.Sc./M.S.) and Ph.D.(Philosophy of Doctorate). This field basically requires very deep knowledge of Biotechnology to excel in this field as this field is more research oriented than others as it involves biological processes that needs to be studied deeply and hence, salary also increases after post-graduation and ranges from 5-10 lakhs per annum. But for getting admissions, IIT-JAM, GATE and such national level or private colleges entrance exams are required for admissions. After Ph.D., salary changes drastically and ranges between 4 lakhs to 20 lakhs and you can become scientist and professor too after doing Ph.D. Prominent colleges are usually same as for graduation level but IISc Bangalore is top most college for doing post- graduation and Ph.D. After post-graduation, studies are very deep and concerned with usually one topic of Biotechnology such as Microbiology, Genetic Engineering and so on. 

Practically saying, Biotechnology is the future and career in this field blossoms with more and more education in this field and Biotechnology is really a way to serve humanity as well as nature.